A course best known for long climbs and quick descents meant that the XCO World Cup race at Albstadt was one for the climbers and good tactics. With the women riding five laps, and men riding six, the course was 4.22km long with 190 metres of elevation gain per lap.
In the women’s field, we saw Rebecca McConnell have a perfect weekend, having also won the XCC race, only the 5th woman ever to do that. She was right at the front for pretty much all of the race. The only time her position was challenged was during the fourth lap when Jenny Rissveds overtook and briefly led the ride, before Rebecca McConnell took back her lead on the long climb. Jenny finished strong in second place. Another impressive performance this weekend was shown by the incredible Mona Mitterwallner who started quite far back and took the third place on the podium. Loana Lecomte finished fourth and Alessandra Keller finished fifth. The reigning XCO world champion Evie Richards finished 19th. Annie Last finished 45th, ahead of Kate Courtney who crashed midway through the race ending up quite bruised.
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In the men’s field, we’re not even surprised by how it turned out! The only British rider in the men’s line up and Redbull athlete Tom Pidcock took the win, and he did it in style! He reined it in for the first three laps and went for a breakaway with three more laps to go. Nino Schurter and Vlad Dascalu put down incredible performances finishing second and third respectively. Vlad Dascalu broke his saddle towards the start of the race, and was remarkably back with the chasing group by the last lap. Titouan Carod finished fourth and David Valero Serrano finished fifth.
After this challenging course in Albstadt and strong race by athletes from around the globe, the next World Cup will take place at Nove Mesto Na Morave between 13th and 15th May. As we progress towards the third World Cup, the fight for the overall standings will start becoming more apparent and we’re looking forwards to following some fun racing! You can watch this race on Red Bull TV.
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